A marketer's guide on when to do your research and when to follow everyone else's lead.
If you’re one of those people who continually find themselves drawn to the latest, shiny new gadget to hit the shelves, you might find yourself wasting taking the same approach in your own business — and a lot of time on pointless marketing pursuits. The digital marketing industry is flooded with new ideas, processes, apps and tech tools, and nobody wants to be the last to catch on to the latest trend.
For savvy marketers, this can result in the temptation to jump straight in; adopting every new app or ideology simply through fear of being left behind by their competitors. And while that will often prove rewarding, spending too much time on the wrong marketing pursuits can be equally detrimental to your business bottom line. So how do you know when to take a step back and do your research, and when to follow everyone else's lead and join the latest marketing movement.
Do your research, don’t just follow the pack
The short answer is: always do your own research first. Even if you ultimately follow the advice of others, it pays to have an understanding of the advantages and pitfalls of every tool in your marketing toolkit.
As marketers, we’re faced with an overwhelming choice of channels through which we can focus our promotional efforts — and the breadth of options available to us is continually expanding. We’ve got social media platforms, collaborative work tools, marketing automation software, marketing metrics, dashboards, and all number of apps to help track our projects, our time and our customers. It’s suggested that online marketers use an average of 12 tools every day to manage their leads, customers and campaigns — although some claim to use up to 31 of these tools throughout the course of a typical workday. Surely this can't be the most efficient use of our time.
Don't get me wrong — if there's a new digital marketing strategy or channel that's gaining large scale attention, it's likely to be for good reason. In fact, you’ll struggle to find any popular ones that are actually bad. But that doesn't mean that the more tools you employ, the better you'll be; not all marketing channels will be appropriate for your specific needs (or for your target audience’s, for that matter). Pouring time and resources into the wrong online marketing strategies can do a lot more harm than good. The only way you’ll know which ones to choose is by doing your research.
Where to focus your research
The first step in deciding whether or not to lead the charge in your marketing effort is to stipulate your goals. Is your primary objective to increase ROI and overall sales? Do you plan to do this by generating more content? Or would it be more beneficial to have a system that can help you better track your leads? How will you actually make use of new metrics to help reach your goals? Is it simply a fad?There’s lots of options here, so before you entertain the thought of adopting a new marketing tool, make sure it aligns with the needs of your business, stakeholders and buyer personas.A core concept to the inbound marketing methodology, buyer personas are fictional representations of the ideal customers you’re trying to connect with. To examine these target buyers, demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, geographical location, income level and occupation), as well as more comprehensive information about their hobbies, buying habits, goals, pain points, computer literacy, technological adoption and social media preferences, are assessed. (If you haven’t analysed your ideal customer in this way before, check out our free online template and learn how to create a buyer persona for your own business).
Once your customers have been profiled, you’ll be able to tailor your online marketing strategy (and channels employed) to suit your buyer’s preferences. For example: we know that younger generations are more rapid adopters of new media platforms, while older generations are a bit slower to become comfortable with new technologies and might prefer to communicate through more established channels such as Facebook, or even email.
Some other considerations you may wish to ask your personas are:
- Which social media platforms do they visit most frequently?
- What kind of news and content to they tend to share?
- What format of content do they prefer? (Video, podcast, blog...)
- What type of device (such as computer or mobile device) do they use most?
By answering these questions first, you'll be able to refine the choice of marketing channels available to you, and match them better to your target audience.
Further resources for the marketing leader
Where does the discerning marketer go to access credible, online research? We suggest the following 5 resources to get you started.
1. Marketing Sherpa
A US-based, independent marketing research institution. Information on the latest marketing trends and studies are available through a range of freely available online content, including reports, how-to guides, videos, charts and case studies.
2. Forrester
Forrester are one of the largest organisations in the world in terms of business research, data collection and analysis and consulting. Their reports are highly reputable and expertly researched, but are only available as a premium service (which can be costly) — so may not be suitable for smaller businesses seeking DIY marketing advice.
3. eConsultancy
As a community of marketers and ecommerce experts from all over the world, eConsultancy provides training, comprehensive marketing research, events and troubleshooting advice to its members. It’s a subscription-based service, but their website also offers some free resources for non-members.
4. Hubspot
Online marketing strategists Hubspot have made a wealth of information and marketing tools available through their online library. One of the most prolific inbound marketing resources available on the web, they’re a first port of call for any marketer wanting to learn how to maximise the business potential of emerging digital channels, as well as current social media platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
5. Mashable Australia
For lighter reading, Mashable’s short, informative articles — which cover news, trends and opinion — are a great way to keep your eye on the digital marketing climate. Their bite-sized chunks of advice provide a simple, accessible resource for any digital marketer looking to improve their game.
Regardless of whether you follow the crowd or decide to lead the way alone in the digital marketing arena, always remember to check back with your business goals and buyer personas before getting too carried away. There is no substitute for research when it comes to building successful online marketing strategies. Beyond that, have fun with the latest channels to hit the online sphere, and leverage them to lead your business better.
